Tanana River

“ The natives call it the Tananá, in allusion to its music, which is a sharp, resonant stridulation resembling the syllables ta-na-ná, ta-na-ná, succeeding each other with little intermission. It seems to be rare in the neighbourhood. When the natives capture one, they keep it in a wicker-work cage for the sake of hearing it sing. ”

“ Fear of the Tanana Indians appears to be the motive for the rapid rate of travel through their country, and although in general a very friendly tribe to encounter away from home, they have always opposed any exploration of their country. ”

“ The region about the mouth of the river and for some miles up is one of the windiest in the country, and there is always troublesome crossing of bare sand-bars and of ice over which sand has been blown. The journey hastens to its close; men and dogs alike realise it, and push on willingly over longer stages than they had before attempted.
Two days from Tanana we were luxuriating in the natural hot springs near Baker Creek, wallowing in the crude wooden vat, when "Daddy Karstner" had shovelled enough snow in to make entering the water possible, and emerging ruddy as boiled lobsters. ”

“ According to Brooks (Reconnaissance, 490-491) , the Tanana natives were separated into two geographic contingents, the eastern or highland and the northwestern or lowland groups. The most easterly group included the Indian settlements in the vicinity of Forty-mile and Mentasta Pass trail; the northwestern comprises to-day those from Nenana to the mouth of the river. ”

“ Adjoining, the lower Tana are many backwaters, which seem to show that the course has been subject to great changes. In 2° 20′ S. the river again turns east, but during the last 10 m. it flows south-west, parallel to the coast, entering the sea across a dangerous bar. The Tana has been navigated in a steam-launch for some 300 m. from the mouth. North of the Tana is the Ozi, a small river connected with the Tana by the Belazoni canal. ”

“ There are several families living on the different rivers and creeks round about, and with them all we are on friendly terms; with some we are passably intimate, though with none quite so affectionately at one as with Tama. Perhaps our next best friends would be found at Tanoa.
Tanoa is a large kainga on the Otamatea river, and lies about sixteen miles across the bush from our farm, or somewhat more by the water-road. It contains a population of two or three hundred; men, [Pg 267] women, and children. This Maori town may be considered the metropolis of the Ngatewhatua tribe. ”

“ The convent lies on the lake shore, and on the brow of the same land or slope. Tanauan lies eleven or twelve leguas from Manila, and belongs to the latter’s bishopric. In it is Comintan, where many cotton hose are made. The inhabitants are healthier and more clever than the others. Champans (which are Sangley boats) enter this lake through the Taal River, by which the lake empties into the sea; for the Chinese go everywhere, and there is no islet, however devoid of profit it be, where they do not go. If they can obtain nothing else at any islet they get wood ”

“ This is the neutral ground where all the tribes meet in the spring to trade. The Tananah, which flows into the Yukon at this point, is much broader here than the Yukon, and it is here that Captain Dall exclaims in his diary: "And yet into this noble river no white man has dipped his paddle." Recently, however, the Tananah has been more or less explored by prospectors [27] with favorable results towards the head of the river, which is more easily reached overland from Circle City and the Birch Creek camps. ”

“ In calm weather, we commonly encamped with no other covering than our blankets. In all this journey, Pe-shau-ba and Sa-nin-kwuh carried each one of our sister’s little children on their backs. Thus we travelled on as diligently as the weather would permit for about two months and a half. In the middle of our journey, we passed the trading-house and fort at Mouse River. The general direction of our route was a little north of west till we arrived, at last, at a place called Kau-wau-ko-mig Sah-kie-gun, Clear Water Lake, from which runs a small stream, called Sas-kaw-ja-wun, (Swift Water;) ”

“ When the Tanganika has risen three feet higher there will be no surf at the mouth of the Lukuga, no sill of sand, no oozing mud-banks, no rush-covered old river-course, but the accumulated waters of over a hundred rivers will sweep through the ancient gap with the force of a cataclysm, bearing away on its flood all the deposits of organic débris at present in the Lukuga Creek down the steep incline to swell the tribute due to the mighty Livingstone. ”

“ This stream is the last that runs eastward, and soon after crossing it the track comes to the highest point over which the road to Tacna passes. Before descending, one notices to the northward, deeply indented on the side of the peak of Tacora, the aqueduct which conveys the water of the river Maury, an affluent of the Desaguadero, to the town of Tacna. This pass, which is called Chulancani, is surmounted by a huge cairn, or “apacheta,” [380] composed principally of the bones of the mules and donkeys that have fallen victims to the soroche. ”

“ Without any further words, we parted, and the old Smoker and myself continued our laborious and difficult route along the bed of the Illinois. Most of the country on both sides the route from Chikago to the Yellow Ochre River, are prairie in which horses and carts can be driven without any difficulty. On our arrival at the place appointed, we found the Po-ta-wato-mie there, and all safe.
We now embarked every thing together in the canoe, and went down to Fort Clark which is on a narrow neck of land between two lakes, and is thence called by the Indians Ka-gah-gum-ming, [36] (the isthmus.) ”

“ The next afternoon, being tired of this sort of prison-life, and cramped for lack of exercise, I launched the canoe into the rough water, and crossing to Crow Island found a lee under its shores, which permitted me to ascend the river to the mouth of Atchison Creek, through which I passed, two miles, to the South Santee River.
All these rivers are bordered by rice plantations, many of them having been abandoned to the care of the freedmen. I saw no white men upon them. Buildings and dikes are falling into ruins, and the river freshets frequently inundate the land. ”

“ Turning back, we walked some way along the banks of the other river, and soon came to the conclusion, from various indications, that it was not a river at all, but an ancient canal, like the one which is to be seen above Mombasa, on the Zanzibar coast, connecting the Tana River with the Ozy, in such a way as to enable the shipping coming down the Tana to cross to the Ozy, and reach the sea by it, and thus avoid the very dangerous bar that blocks the mouth of the Tana. ”

“ Three of our party, whose women had not come, had to continue on to Lake of the Woods. Our wives laughed at us, telling us it was more like old women than like warriors returning to their village, to sit shivering in a canoe which could move neither way, [202] through fear of a little water and ice. They had brought us a supply of corn, sturgeon, and other food, and with them we returned to our last encampment where we rested a few days, then went down to Red River with the intention of spending the winter there. ”

“ The Massachusetts committee of 1791, therefore, cast about for something to give a colour of pretence for adhering to the old position, after it had been thus exposed. And in their difficulty, they quit Charles river, and run up into Mill brook, and through Whiting's pond, two and a half miles off, and then into another brook still further on. Their report (annexed to the bill) shows this. After mentioning that the Rhode Island committee measured from Charles river as it now is, they say, 'we have inserted our own survey of what we conceive to be the most southern part of Charles river,' &c. ”

“ But to return to my beautiful river and glorious rapids, which are to be treated, you see, as a man treats a passionate beauty—he does not oppose her, for that were madness—but he gets round her. Well, on the American side, further down the river, is the house of Tanner, the Indian interpreter, of whose story you may have heard—for, as I remember, it excited some attention in England. He is a European of unmixed blood, with the language, manners, habits of a Red-skin. He had been kidnapped somewhere on the American frontiers when a mere boy, and brought up among the Chippewas. ”

“ This place is near that where a settlement has since been made, called Pembina. With the people of the fur-traders, we hunted all the remainder of the winter. In the spring we returned, in company with these lodges of Indians, to the lake where we had left our canoes. We found all our property safe, and having got all together from our sunjegwuns, and all that we had brought from Red River, we had now eleven packs of beaver, of forty skins each, and ten packs of other skins. It was now our intention to return to Lake Huron, and to dispose of our peltries at Mackinac. ”

“ The packs of beaver she would not leave with the traders, not having sufficient confidence in their honesty. We therefore took them to a remote place in the woods, where we made a sunjegwun, or deposite, in the usual manner. We then returned to the Lake of the Woods. From this lake the Indians have a road to go to Red River which the white men never follow ”

“ Suppose you going, I come up from schooner, bring plenty-plenty tucker. Plenty-plenty bulimacow [beef] , bisketti, tucker belong white man, cost ten rifle. All the Tannaman he eat; by'n-by he stop lie down, he break, so much he eat."
This tempting picture had its effect, backed up by a few presents of beads and cartridges. The Tannamen agreed that the plain below the burning mountain, where a wide, stagnant lake spread out its dull expanse, would do for a bathing place, short of the impossible shore, and they chuckled with joyous anticipation of the feast. ”

“ The Maskejok joins the Tana on its western side about four miles north of Seida, where the road from Tana mouth to Vadsö crosses the river and leaves the Tana Valley. The Maskejok Valley here widens out, and the river takes a very zigzag course, running into the main stream between high sand-banks, its mouth being guarded by a sand bar, which makes it very shallow, so much so, that when the river is low, canoes drawing only three or four inches have to be hauled across by hand. ”

“ Elk hunting—beaver and buffalo hunting—endangered in killing a buffalo cow—Fall Indians—return to Rainy Lake—Swamp River and Portage—the Begwionusko River and Lake—honesty and good faith in the intercourse of the Indians—hospitality—sufferings from hunger—Red River—loss of packs—supposed dishonesty of traders—rapacity of the traders of the N. W. company—disasters following the loss of our peltries.
In the Assinneboin river, at one or two days above the Prairie Portage, is a place called Ke-new-kau-neshe way-boant, (where they throw down the gray eagle,) at which the Indians frequently stop. ”

“ Their masters came, of course, every year to bring down the rubber that had been collected. Twenty times the quantity could easily be brought down to the coast if labour were obtainable. Not only was the Juruena River itself almost absolutely untouched commercially—as we have seen, we did not meet a soul during the fifty days we navigated it—but even important tributaries close to S. Manoel, such as the Euphrasia, the São Thomé, the São Florencio, the Misericordia, and others, were absolutely desert regions, although the quantity of rubber to be found along those streams must be immense. ”

“ It took us all that week to make the watershed between the drainage of the Tanana and the drainage of the Kuskokwim, a point about half-way to Lake Minchúmina. One day trail was broken, the next day the loads went forward. ”

“ Knowing how meanly the Tannese treated the Spirits whom they worshiped in Heathenism,—giving them the scraggiest fish, the poorest bananas, and the smallest yams,—we rejoiced in this Christian liberality!!"
Referring to exaggerated Newspaper rumors she says: "Tanna bulks largely in some minds, though it is only a small Island, a little larger than Arran! We had noticed that our Civil War was telegraphed not only to the Australian papers, but to San Francisco, and even to the London Standard. We have been receiving letters of condolence from friends, who think our lives in danger!" ”

“ TAUNTON RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS- The main stem of the Taunton River from its headwaters at the confluence of the Town and Matfield Rivers in the Town of Bridgewater downstream 40 miles to the confluence with the Quequechan River at the Route 195 Bridge in the City of Fall River, to be administered by the Secretary of the Interior in cooperation with the Taunton River Stewardship Council as follows: ` (A) The 18-mile segment from the confluence of the Town and Matfield Rivers to Route 24 in the Town of Raynham, as a scenic river. ”

“ The missionary Montigny, who visited the locality about the same epoch, estimated the population of that part of the Taensa settlement which he saw at 400 persons. "They were scattered over an area of eight leagues, and their cabins lay along a river."
The seven villages visited by d'Iberville constitute one town only, as he was told. This means to say that they formed a confederacy. A Taensa Indian, who accompanied him, gave their names in the Chicasa trade language, or, as the French called it, the Mobilian jargon (Margry IV, 179) .
1. Taënsas; from Cha'hta tandshi maize. ”